"George: Honestly - and this is where things get gauzy - so much of that process is intuitive. Just deciding minute-by-minute, over and over again, over the period during which you’re writing the story. Sort of like seasoning to taste or something like that. I think that’s one of the maybe under-discussed aspects of process - the difference between a good writing day and a bad one is the quality of the split-second decisions you made. And that is dependent upon - well, who knows?"
— George Saunders (via mattfractionblog)
"I write scripts to serve as skeletons awaiting the flesh and sinew of images."
—
Ingmar Bergman (via 24hourwriters)
me too
(via mercurialblonde)
"If you just give people what they expect, I think you’re not doing your job as a creative person. You’re just a marketing guy. Your job as a creative person is to give people what they don’t expect — or what they expect, without knowing that this is what they want. But your goal as a creative person is to surprise people all the time, and give them something different."
— David Cage
"Doing any work leads to refinements and changes in your overall method as experience builds up and teaches forcibly in a way you can’t ignore. The more work you do, the more thought is processed and distilled and the more streamlined your workflow. If an artist is actively engaged in what they’re doing then they’re always looking for a chance to innovate, and your chances of success improve the more you work, ideally."
— Bernie Mireault
"I don’t like the idea of “understanding” a film. I don’t believe that rational understanding is an essential element in the reception of any work of art. Either a film has something to say to you or it hasn’t. If you are moved by it, you don’t need it explained to you. If not, no explanation can make you moved by it."
— Federico Fellini (via visenyatargaryen)
(via fuckyeahdirectors)
"People filling in ideas can become tedious and counterproductive. You find yourself working backwards… so my general rule is, if it’s something you can’t live with—if a sentence begins with ‘I can’t’ or ‘I will not’—then we examine it. But if it’s ‘maybe we should’ or ‘I think that’ then it’s like, hey man, full steam ahead. Not that there isn’t a lot of refinement to what we do—obviously there is— but I consider it a balance of raw energy and refinement."
— Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. He’s talking about his process in the studio, but it kind of works for writing too.
"Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen."
— Robert Bresson.
"All my life I’ve been harassed by questions: Why is something this way and not another? How do you account for that? This rage to understand, to fill in the blanks, only makes life more banal. If we could only find the courage to leave our destiny to chance, to accept the fundamental mystery of our lives, then we might be closer to the sort of happiness that comes with innocence."
—
Luis Buñuel.
(via criterioncorner)
(Source: film-dot-com)
